• Deutsch für Dich is not a course but a learning platform where you can find tutorials, interactive learning games, learning partners and learning tips from other members in the forum. To get access you will need to register but registration is free of charge. Courses and exams provided by the Goethe Institute at their premises are obviously not free of charge.
• Deutsch am Arbeitsplatz (German at Work) includes free practice exercises for students at proficiency levels of A1-B2. This course is suitable for all those who are planning on working in Germany to improve their work-specific language skills. There are separate courses for various professions like social service workers, scientists, technical professions, etc., while all instructions are in German.

* The Goethe Institute recently removed some of its older free courses such as ‘Grüße aus Deutschland’ from their platform but, in return, they have introduced a number of new courses (both free and paid) in various formats. As a result of these changes, the webpages of the Goethe Institute are constantly being reshuffled and/or removed and, sometimes, it can be difficult to find your way on their website. A good starting point when looking for free courses from the Goethe Institute is this webpage. Alternatively, you can find references to a lot more free resources from the Goethe Institute in other sections of this website.

• Easy Online German is a complete German course for beginners and intermediate students with focus on all the most important language learning topics including grammar, basic everyday vocabulary, listening comprehension and pronunciation. Everything is explained in English, so the course is also suitable for an absolute beginner. Unfortunately, this very useful website is not mobile friendly yet and can, therefore, only be viewed on larger screens such as desktops or tablets.
• Deutsch-Lernen.com offers free German lessons and grammar exercises for beginners and more advanced students as well as online tests for assessing a learner’s skill level. For instructions, readers can choose between an English and a German version of the website. Those who also want to improve their writing skills will find many useful tips on correct spelling of German words in the orthography section.
• Deutsche Welle developed a new German-learning platform which offers a whole range of free German courses and tests for all levels of German language skills from absolute beginners up to C1 level. In fact, Deutsche Welle brings you some of the most innovative free German lessons you can find anywhere on the internet. Most of them include a full transcript in PDF format and a downloadable MP3 file. Follow-up exercises will help you exercise your grammar skills and learn new vocabulary. Some examples of German lessons that you can find on LearnGerman.DW.com include:
  • Top-Thema mit Vokabeln (B1) is an unconventional language course from Deutsche Welle for intermediate students. It brings you the top news from around the world to help improve your vocabulary. The news is read slowly and clearly and there is a slow-spoken audio download for each episode. You will be asked to answer a couple of questions after each episode to make sure you understand the main points. The whole course was recently moved to the new mobile platform. The original page with downloadable solutions (as PDFs) can still be found at the archived old DW website. Solutions from episodes released since 2018 are available at the new website.
  • Nicos Weg B1 is a continuation of the Nicos Weg A1 and A2 that were mentioned amongst the lessons for beginners and it is the last (third) part of the series, ending with the final knowledge test. This part consists of 18 practical episodes that encompass various aspects of everyday life in Germany (e.g., school, work, relationships, environmental issues, media, politics, migration, history, etc.).
  • Jojo sucht das Glück (B1) is a telenovela about a young lady from Brazil who is seeking happiness in Germany while studying there at the university. You can follow her adventures and so learn new vocabulary needed in various day-to-day situations.
  • Ticket nach Berlin is another exciting course from Deutsche Welle that is only available in German language because it requires an upper intermediate knowledge of the language (B2). In this course you will accompany six young German learners from different countries on their adventurous journey through Germany. The course includes 19 episodes with interactive tests to examine how well you are coping with German grammar and vocabulary. Downloadable worksheets, transcripts and audios for each episode are available under extras.
  • Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten or slowly spoken news in English (B2) is a great way of expanding your vocabulary and training your listening comprehension. You can download the news in MP3 format either from the DW website or from ITunes.
  • Video-Thema (B2) brings you interesting reports on various contemporary topics. The short movies are downloadable and subtitles can be turned on and off. Follow-up exercises will help you remember new vocabulary. Downloadable materials for each episode can be found under extras.
  • Alltagsdeutsch (C1-C2) is the course for the most advanced students of the German language. As its title suggests, its aim is to teach you the language that natives use in everyday communication among themselves. It consists of audio-reports on everyday life in Germany, that is, the themes related to work, leisure, society, traditions, etc. In this course you will also learn a little bit of colloquial language used in common situations.
  • Sprachbar (momentarily only available from web archive) is a course for advanced students of German (C1-C2). By analysing latest headlines, idioms and specifics of German grammar, learners become familiar with the intricacies of the German language. For each video there is a full transcript in PDF format and an MP3 file that you can download.

  * For a complete list of all courses for beginners, intermediate and advanced students of German provided by the Deutsche Welle for free, visit the web page LearnGerman.DW.com.

• German courses at the VHS Lernportal are part of a free educational platform of the German Adult Education Association established with the aim to support the integration of immigrants. However, this great educational portal can also be used by non-residents. All German lessons (including more than 11,000 exercises) are free but you will need to register at their website to gain full access. Before you do so, preview the courses as a guest to see how you like them. The courses are suitable for beginners and intermediate students (levels A1-B2).
• GCSE School German from BBC is a course for intermediate students of German to train their reading and listening comprehension, writing and grammar skills as well as their exam skills.
• Deutsch.info is a platform that not only offers free German courses for beginners and intermediates (levels A1 to B1) but it also provides useful tips on living in Germany and Austria. In addition to that you will find there dictionaries, media library, detailed grammar explanations and a community forum. Registration is necessary but it is free. This portal is available in 19 language versions.
• Alison is a platform where you can find all sorts of 100% free online courses. At the end of each course there is a free exam and, if you pass it, you can decide on whether you wish to become an Alison graduate. To do so you will need to pay for a certificate or diploma as these are not free. Just search for keywords such as “German language” and you will find dozens of courses for all levels of German learners including, for example, “Intermediate German 201”.
• OpenLearn is a language project of the Open University in the UK, one of the leading providers of online education. At the time of writing this paragraph there were nine free German language courses available there, while two of them were intermediate and two were advanced. All these online courses are also downloadable as PDFs (videos as MP4s) for off-line learning. Each chapter in every course contains lots of interactive exercises for practicing grammar and vocabulary. However, you will need to register for a free account in order to be able to use the interactive functionality of exercises. For those who decide to use PDFs instead of studying online, please keep in mind that PDFs do not contain solutions to the exercises.
• Nthuleen.com is a great collection of German teaching materials compiled by an American university lecturer. Although the site has not been updated since 2004, it still offers many useful resources for German learners. You will find there loads of grammar exercises and vocabulary building exercises but also texts about German culture and German lyrics.
• Klett Sprachen is one of the greatest online resources for anybody learning German, whether beginner, intermediate or advanced German speaker. Unfortunately, the language of the website is German (only), so beginners may not be able to find all of its goodies. The platform offers free online placement tests (many of them are also available for download in PDF format with solutions at the end), examples of actual tests in PDF format for relevant German language proficiency examinations as well as online exercises.